


The Hunt for the Winter Soldier

by xvalkyrieofodin



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 07:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4616988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xvalkyrieofodin/pseuds/xvalkyrieofodin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha heads to Russia along with Steve and some of her fellow Avengers to track down the remnants of both Hydra and the Red Room, in her quest to discover her ties to the Winter Soldier.  Wanda unlocked Natasha's hazy memories of the Red Room and the warm smile of the man once called Bucky Barnes.  I hope to make this story my own version of the Black Widow movie that we may never see on the big screen.  It's a continuation from my earlier fic, "Echoes of Red and Winter."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hunt for the Winter Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> I recommend reading my fic "Echoes of Red and Winter" before reading this story. It's more or less the prologue to this story. I hope to post a chapter about once a week, but as with most authors, I get motivated by feedback. Hope you enjoy!

“So what exactly are we supposed to be doing right now?” Sam asked.  
Natasha could tell he looked visibly uncomfortable. She was not sure if it was due to their surroundings or the fact that Russian winters felt quite different than the ones he had experiences in Washington D.C.  
“Try to blend in.” Natasha replied.  
A smirk bloomed across Sam’s face and he quirked an eyebrow upward.  
“Not all of us have super spy training Romanoff, you got any tips?”  
“We’ll be there soon enough, no time for a learning curve.” She replied.  
“She certainly can’t teach you Russian in the next few minutes. Just try scowling a bit, look miserable. You smile too much, Sam.” Wanda offered a sly smile.  
Wanda’s comment did manage to provoke Sam into a disgruntled look, but Natasha was not sure if it was because he took offense or because he did as Wanda instructed.  
“And since we don’t know Russian, maybe we should cut the chatter until we meet up with Nat’s contact.” Steve interjected, ever the leader.  
They did as he asked, clad in their heavy coats and hats, as they made their way through the streets of Volgograd. Natasha had once known these streets well and she could almost remember playing in them as a small child. That was before everything fell apart, before her parents and her world were torn away from her.  
She always wondered why Ivan had decided to settle here. It was not his hometown or even a city which he spent much time in. It lead her to believe that perhaps it was the significance of the place that drew him here. This is where he saved her, where he took a small red-haired girl under his care.  
“Here we are.” Natasha said as she turned to approach his door.  
Apprehension filled her, but it was the sort of dread a child felt before seeing their parent. Though it had been a year or so since she had last seen Ivan, Natasha always found that she felt this way when she greeted him face to face. She wanted him to be proud of her, to approve of her choices.  
She knocked, a strong gesture, and barely a moment passed before she heard the lock start to turn.  
At first Ivan’s eyes filled with confusion and then in an instant they were filled with joy. A smile spread across his features and he pulled Natasha into a firm hug.  
“Natalia, Сколько лет, сколько зим!” He exclaimed.  
“Ivan, Давно не виделись!” She replied warmly.  
She pulled back to look at him. He had changed since the last time she had seen him, more wrinkles around his eyes and more gray in his hair, but his smile was the same.  
“Пожалуйста, входите в.” He said, and followed it with a gesture motioning for them to enter.  
Natasha looked back to the others and gave them nod that confirmed they should follow her and then they headed inside. Wanda offered Ivan a smile and spoke in slightly accented Russian to him.  
“Спасибо.”  
Once they were all in with the door closed behind Natasha, she again looked to Ivan with a smile.  
“Пожалуйста, по английски. Только мой друг в минусе может понять нас.” She asked.  
“Well, I wouldn’t want to leave your boy friends out of the conversation.” Ivan replied with the arch of a brow.  
She knew that his English was good enough that he had made the “boy friends” comment on purpose. Steve averted his eyes and Natasha thought she might have seen the hint of a blush on his cheeks. Sam let his hands go to his hips and puffed his chest out a little, proudly looking around the room.  
“They are not our boyfriends, just our teammates, Mr. Petrovich.” Wanda corrected as she not so gently elbowed Sam in the chest.  
He continued to smile widely, despite her chiding.  
“What brings you back to Russia, Natalia?” Ivan asked. “I was surprised when I got your message, I know you have been busy with your…team as of late.”  
“Steve, why don’t you share what we have so far?” Natasha said as she looked at him over her shoulder.  
Steve pulled a picture from the bag he carried. The Avengers knew the face of the Winter Soldier well enough, but Natasha was curious to measure Ivan’s reaction to the image. Sure, he was like a father to her, but family did not meant trust, especially not with the past that Ivan and Natasha shared. Beyond that, trust was a thing that Natasha reserved for a relative few.  
“Hydra is pretty much running with their tail between their legs, but we can’t manage to locate one of their operatives. His codename is the Winter Soldier, I assume you know of him.” Steve said as he held the picture up for Ivan to see.  
“Da. He is somewhat of a legend, at least in the kind of work we do.” Ivan regarded with a casual glance. He kept his eyes on Steve when he looked away from it.  
“He’s also this man.” Steve said as he pulled another image from his bag and offered it to Ivan. This image was of James “Bucky” Barnes, shortly after Steve and he had escaped from the clutches of the Red Skull. “We are trying to figure out if he had ties to the Red Room.”  
Ivan’s eyes flashed in alarm for the smallest moment, but he quickly recovered. It was then than his gaze shifted to Natasha, but he only looked at her for a moment before he glanced back to the picture.  
“Why would Hydra take an American Soldier and turn him into such a thing? Natasha, I did not know that you now deal in such conspiracy theories…” Ivan rebuked, though he did not look at her again.  
“This would go a lot more smoothly if you did not lie to us, Ivan. I think you owe me that much.” She replied.  
Natasha stepped forward, slow but deliberate, and put herself between the photos Steve held and Ivan. Ivan continued to avert his eyes, but how he had settled for gazing at the floor instead of the woman before him. Behind her, Steve slipped the pictures back into his bag.  
“You visited me often in the Red Room, nearly until I graduated. If this man was around, you would have seen him. You would remember his face. You always remember their faces, Ivan.” Natasha stated.  
Natasha was not sure if that last sentence was for him, or for herself. The visages of those she had harmed in her time serving the Red Room would never leave her, but neither would the faces of those that had trained her to do harm. She had doubts about his ability to push such memories from his own mind and unlike Natasha, Ivan had been in a position of power. He was not one of the students, he was an honored soldier.  
She wondered if his gift for remembering people was a sign that he cared more than most in his position. Certainly there was evidence for that, what kind of man grabs a crying orphan from the streets to take on as his own? The kind with a soft heart beneath this practiced exterior. Natasha was sure that the years had thickened the walls around his heart, but she doubted that they had completely hidden the man he had once been.  
“Trouble never comes alone, does it?” Ivan replied.  
“Never.” Natasha agreed. It was an old saying, one she had heard him repeat many times over the years she had known him.  
“Hydra may have fallen, but you must be careful, Natalia. When things die, even things like the Red Room, there are ghosts left in their wake. These are poltergeists, the kind I would not want you to disturb.” He cautioned, but he must have realized no amount of warning would stop her, so he continued. “There is only one place still left alive that I know of, that might hold the keys to your past, if they have not already destroyed all record of it.”  
She noticed how careful he was. He had still not admitted to recognizing the Winter Soldier, though Natasha was certain that he did.  
He went to the kitchen and started to write a note on the table. “These are the coordinates, or at least, the ones I know of. Last I heard they no longer train operatives there, but maintain operations.”  
“Hydra’s fallen apart, they didn’t go down with it?” Sam asked.  
“The Red Room has survived a long time, and I assume they plan to continue that survival, so you must be cautious.”  
“We will be.” Wanda said.  
Her tone carried an air of finality with her statement, something Natasha had started notice that Wanda did often. The way she spoke at times did not leave room for those around her to question her. It was likely amplified by the almost mystic way she entered a room or interacted with people. Natasha did not think of her as a witch, not strictly, but Wanda seemed more than happy to play that sort of part, mysterious in her own way. Mysterious in a way that was very different from how Natasha was.  
Natasha dealt in secrets. Wanda dealt in something more like magic.  
“We should go, I do not want to trouble you any further.” Natasha said.  
She put special emphasis on the word trouble, Ivan would understand that she had no further intention to darken his door in the future. She had asked him many times before about her past and he had always been so reluctant to share beyond what she already knew. It was hard to know what changed now, but perhaps it was that she was not alone, maybe he no longer saw her as the little girl she had once been to him.  
Either way, she would not bring trouble to his door again. Not if she could help it. If the Red Room really was still active and they knew he was the one to give them up, it would put a target on his back. Even if he had not been fully truthful with her, Natasha did not wish to cause his death.  
Ivan offered her one last nod as she turned toward the door. It took a moment for her friends to join her as she left, they probably expected more to pass between Natasha and the man who had once been like a father to her. That was simply not the kind of people they were, tender hugs and soft words. Her relationship with Nick Fury was of a similar make. She trusted him completely and cared quit deeply for him, but they show of that affection looked very different than most people.  
Once they were out and the door closed behind them, Steve sunk his hands into his pockets and turned to face her.  
“So what next? We can’t exactly hit a convert operation like that as we are right now. How ‘bout we call in some back up and get our gear?”  
“I think I have different plan. I have suits and gear in a car nearby, for each of you. I had a safe house not far from here, and as long as it is still there and in good condition, we should have everything we need…” She paused and looked to Wanda.  
“We should call Clint though and let him know we might go dark for a day or so. Set up a contact time, so he knows that we made it out safe and sound.” Natasha continued.  
Standard SHIELD protocol, or at least what SHIELD had once been. She had heard rumblings that parts of it were scraping back together, but with Fury in the wind, she had her doubts about how far they would get. Maybe that was hasty, she had managed to pull her life back from shattered pieces time and time again… Maybe whoever planned to put SHIELD back together had the same sort of fortitude. Most people in intelligence were made of sturdy stuff.  
Malleable, but sturdy at the same.  
Or perhaps that was just what she was, or at least, what she had been. It was certainly what made the Red Room see her as such a valuable asset.  
Natasha took the lead as they headed back to the car. That seemed to be Steve’s place, especially for the search they were on, but something within kept pushing her forward. She had to find him.  
The Winter Soldier had pieces of her memory that were stolen from her and she intended to get them back.

 

*Translations (to the best of my ability, I don’t actually speak Russian, sadly. These were the best research could provide):  
(Ivan)Natalia, Сколько лет, сколько зим - Natalia, Long time no see.  
(Natasha) Ivan, Давно не виделись - Ivan, about time too!  
(Ivan) Пожалуйста, входите в - Please come in.  
(Wanda) Спасибо - Thank you  
(Natasha) Пожалуйста, по английски. Только мой друг в минусе может понять нас - English please, only my friend in Red can understand us.


End file.
